Hi folks!!

We had a great weekend at the 37^th Annual NSRA Hot Rod Drags on 12^th - 14^th September with a fantastic field of 26 entrants, of whom 24 were able to take part over the weekend! Great to see our biggest field of the year of great cars and teams for our final RWYB-type event of the season!  We were able to complete 2 great rounds of racing, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, despite some weather interruptions and curtailment of racing on the Sunday!! This event was Wild Bunch Series Round 4, Spirit of Nostalgia Series Round 6 and Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars Series Round 3 (Final). While we mention him, the whole Wild Bunch would like to send massive Congratulations to Roy and Elaine who were married on the Thursday before the event! Fantastic news! We wish them every happiness for the future! And lots of Love!

Huge Thanks to all of our fantastic Sponsors this weekend! So very much appreciated! …

Keith Crampton of Wiz Training & Development Ltd for sponsoring 1^st - 4^th place Trophies and

Team Bravehart (Prize fund for 1^st place & a Spot Prize) and Spot Prizes: Mick & Frankie Taylor of Team Banshee, Richard Butcher & Team 4th Dimension, Loz Butcher & Team Mean Streak, Jen Wild of Wild Jen Dog Grooming, Team Scumbag, Team Happy Daze and Team Jurassic Parts II

Friday was a Run-What-You-Brung day and 6 teams were out testing that day. Most notable of these was 19-year-old Harley Coulsell who was making his first ever runs in the family ‘Ballbreaker’ slingshot! Harley’s first run was a great 9.228 @ 137.40mph! Brilliant!  His second run was a spectacular 8.462 @ 159.64mph! Absolutely amazing! This remained his PB for the rest of the weekend. Many Congratulations and very well done to him!! Harley is currently our youngest Wild Bunch competitor! A big warm welcome to him on his Wild Bunch driving debut!! And welcome back to the whole Limited Funz Racing team – great to have them back running with us!

Due to the predicted disrupted weather over the weekend, the Wild Bunch and 3 other Race classes were allocated an extra session on the Friday night. Our round took place at about 6:00pm and 17 drivers took part! Many thanks to Max Frost and his team for scheduling this for all of us!!

On Saturday we had 3 rounds scheduled during the Race class sections of the day. Our first session took place from around 11:25am. Of note: the second youngest being 20-year-old Ford Skipp taking a turn in the team’s ‘Chasin’ Time’ slingshot! On the first practice round on Saturday, Ford recorded 8.461 @ 169.82mph!! Many Congratulations Ford! Very well done! This run remained the Quickest and Fastest for the Bunch over the weekend! So our two youngest members were in fact our two quickest and fastest drivers of the event! Well done to both of these fine young men!

During Saturday there was then an interruption in the middle of the day with a heavy rainstorm at about 2:15pm!  We had already decided to run our first round of Wild Bunch competition on the last round Saturday, due to Sunday’s weather looking doubtful. So due to the track not reopening til about 4pm, we decided to make our next session the first round. This was a great round, with 24 drivers taking part. This included Stewart Gleadow making his first ever checkout pass in the family’s ‘Jurassic Parts II’ slingshot. The closest to Dial-in on this round and indeed for the whole weekend was Bradley Cooper in Ken & Bradley’s ‘Back from the Past’ flathead slingshot! The team were quite deservedly over the moon with this run! Very well done team! Very well done also to Kev & Louise Osborne and team making great progress in their ’Texas Ranger’ altered, improving all the time!

Bringing our first round forward even more proved to be a good call, as it was in fact 5:45pm by the time we started running, and there was not time in the end to run another round of Wild Bunch on Saturday, and also, unfortunately, due to all of the downtime during the day, the ‘Cracklefest’ had to be cancelled too. Many commiserations to Terry Robbins and Mark Houghton who suffered a blown engine in the ‘Soul Town Shaker’ slingshot in this round. Thankfully, due to running a diaper under the engine, this caught so much of the oil and Terry stopped the car and was perfectly safe, and with no damage to the rest of the car. Hope they can source another and be back out for a test event this season or early next year. Best of luck!

On Sunday morning, which began dry, we ran our second round at about 11:15am. 18 drivers took part in this round.  Our next round was not due until about 2:10pm, and with clouds gathering and heavy rain showing on the radar by about 1:30pm, we decided to call it for the day by around 1pm, so that teams could pack up in the dry, after having had 2 good rounds.  The weather held a bit longer than expected, but sure enough, by around the time we would have been in the pairings lanes, the first of the rain flurries began. Although there was a bit more running time, it would not have been enough to run our next round.

So, overall we were very lucky considering the forecast had been for rain all day Sunday! We held our prize presentation under Dave Shoemark’s gazebos, so many thanks to him and the team for leaving them up!

Well done to all of our great winners! Here are the Top 4 winners and Spot Prize winners:

1^st Place: Pete & Rob Brown in ‘Wrathchild’  .0184 average (very well done Marras!)

2^nd Place: Rob & Pete Brown in ‘Rebel’  .0240 average (also very well done Marras!)

3^rd Place: Ruaridh Hart in ‘Bravehart’ .0511 average (another great Top 4 place!)

4^th Place: James Auld in ‘Little Fauss’  .0937 average (yet another great Top 4 place!)

Here are the Spot Prizes (expertly fabricated by Elaine Wilding of Coolengineeredart) that were awarded:-

Closest to Dial-in (Race-day): Bradley Cooper in ‘Back from the Past’ .003 off!!

Best Reaction (Race-day): Wayne Colliver in ‘Funky Digit’   .048

Best Burnout: Ford Skipp in ‘Chasin’ Time’  (fantastic smoky burnouts!)

Best Appearing Car: Wayne Colliver in ‘Funky Digit’ (fantastic to see Wayne run regular 9s and fastest ever!)

Best Appearing Team:  Philippa Turton in ‘Bitchcraft’

Moment of the Weekend: Emma Butcher’s brilliant  debut in ‘4^th Dimension’, 12.9 PB & Mother/Son matchup with Loz

Most Improved MPH: Wayne Colliver in ‘Funky Digit’ - improvement of 65.44 mph!! (from 78.03 to 143.47!)

Commentator’s Choice: Harley Coulsell for a brilliant debut in ‘Ballbreaker’ and 8.462/159 PB in RWYB!!

NSRA Award for the Quickest Flathead car: Ken & Bradley Cooper in ‘Back from the Past’  11.003

NSRA Quickest E.T. in WILD BUNCH competition:  Ford Skipp in ‘Chasin’ Time’  8.461

Also, these 3 great teams won a fabulous Glass award for being in the ‘NSRA Dirty Dozen’: James Auld with ‘Little Fauss’, Phil James with ‘Rampage’ and Rob White with ‘Happy Daze’. Well done folks!

 

Here are all the 26 participants along with lots of PBs!:

 

WB  1	JAMES AULD	LITTLE FAUSS
WB  2	ROB & PETE BROWN	REBEL
WB  4	DAN WILSON	ANTIQUE TOY
WB  8	HARLEY COULSELL	BALLBREAKER	8.462 / 159.64
WB 12	PHILIPPA TURTON	BITCHCRAFT	10.274
WB 19	WAYNE COLLIVER	FUNKY DIGIT	9.3174 / 143.47
WB 20	PETE & ROB BROWN	WRATHCHILD
WB 22	BRADLEY COOPER	BACK from the PAST
WB 23	LOZ BUTCHER	MEAN STREAK
WB 30	KEV OSBORNE	TEXAS RANGER	13.759 / 93.51
WB 45	PHIL JAMES	RAMPAGE
WB 50	JAMES GRIFFEN	KISS MY GAS
WB 65	FORD SKIPP	CHASIN’ TIME	169.82 mph
WB 68	STEWART GLEADOW	JURASSIC PARTS II	Debut for Stewart
WB 78	TERRY ROBBINS & MARK HOUGHTON	SOUL TOWN SHAKER
WB 90	TEE ROY	BOSTON STRAGGLER II	1st event of 2025
WB 97	MICK TAYLOR	BANSHEE
WB 98	ROB WHITE	HAPPY DAZE
WB 104	DAVE SHOEMARK	THE CREWMAN
WB 113	PAUL TARRY	TRIGGER’S BROOM
WB 116	IAN WILD	WILDSCAT
WB 245	JOHN SHAROD	NEVER SAY NEVER
WB 358	PETE WHITFIELD	ROWELL RAIL
WB 383	IAN ARMITAGE	OLD GUYS RAIL	8.822 / 154.68
WB 450	EMMA BUTCHER & VINNY BUTCHER	4TH DIMENSION	12.944 / 111.10 11.572 / 119.63
WB 1969	RUARIDH HART	BRAVEHART	9.388

 

Wayne Colliver’s PB ET & Speed is an all time best for him in ANY of his cars! Hooray!

 

[Please do let me know if I have missed any!!]

 

Many Congratulations to all those who ran PB’s at the weekend, especially those who kept setting and re-setting them!! Excellent!! 

Huge commiserations to the ‘Soul Town Shaker’ team on the loss of their engine, and all those who had issues, including Loz Butcher with a gasket issues, James Griffen with a bent push rod, Tee Roy, Mick Taylor with a broken master cylinder and John Sharod with a fuel issue.  Very best of luck to all with the repairs for next season!! 

Highlights of the weekend include the large and fantastic field of Wild Bunch, completing 2 rounds of great competition (when originally the forecast promised none), and of course the brilliant group of people, who all put on a brilliant show and did themselves proud as usual!! There were so many individual highlights from racers and teams and it was amazing to see them all! A huge well done to every team who took part and many Congratulations to our winners!

Many thanks to all of our amazing trophy and prize money sponsors this weekend! So much appreciated! Massive thanks to all the hardworking Santa Pod track crew and every single person involved at Santa Pod and the NSRA for putting on another brilliant event!! Thanks to Colin Theobold and Thomas Cook-Abbott for great commentary! Thanks also to the whole eurodragster team for fab reporting and photos! Brilliant!!

The Points for the 3 Series will be updated asap, so keep a lookout!

All the best

Claire

:-) :-) :-)